Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Christmas and New Year's Day Forecast Results

These long-range weather forecasts were issued at the end of December, 2013. The Christmas Day forecast called for an energetic storm system or strong cold front to bring boisterous winds to the Northeast U.S. and New England areas.

Windy conditions did set in on Christmas Eve. The Accuweather map below shows the forecast area being affected by brisk winds and snow showers.

The main activity occurred on the 26th, a day later, when a low pressure area developed off the New England coast brining heavy and steady snow to the region. Three to six inches of snow was expected. Snow also accumulated in the Northeast causing numerous car accidents in eastern Pennsylvania. This storm was not as boisterous as expected. The Accuweather map below for the 26th shows the prevailing conditions.

The next forecast called for a low pressure system to travel from Virginia to the Canadian Maritimes and to affect the Northeast and New England with strong winds, precipitation, and hazardous weather between December 29th and January 2nd.

On the 29th, Accuweather reported that a snowstorm moving up from the south bringing drenching rain would then hit colder air and deposit heavy snow in the Northeast. The storm would then drop from 6 to 12 inches of snow over portions of New Hampshire, Maine, and New Brunswick. The combination of snow and wind brought risk of downed trees and power outages. The Accuweather map below shows the extent of the snowfall.

Then on January 2nd, Accuweather reported Blizzard to Reach From NYC to Boston Thursday Night. A major snowstorm spanned the Midwest, Appalachian Mountains, and New England affecting holiday travelers, school students, and businesses. Some areas of New England received 12 to 18 inches of snow. The storm kicked up winds creating blizzard conditions as shown in the map below. All in all, this was an accurate forecast.

The New Testament and Women
A quote from feminist theologian Rosemary Reuther

"It is generally assumed that Paul is the author of a Christianity of female subordination. But more recent studies have shown that the historical Paul in fact continued most of the assumptions and practices of early charismatic, inclusive Christianity. Indeed, most of the New Testament evidence that women functioned as local leaders, as well as traveling evangelists, is to be found in the Pauline letters. Paul addresses almost an equal number of women along with men (sixteen women and eighteen men) in his greetings to Church leaders in Romans 16. He mentions two women, Euodia and Syntche, as having preached the gospel "with Barnabas and me" in Philippians 4:2-3. He addresses a woman name Junia by the title of "apostle," and constantly refers to the husband and wife team, Priscilla and Aquila, as "Church leaders," usually naming Priscilla first. He also speaks of the prominent woman Phoebe by the title of both "deacon" and "prostasis" or leader, of her community.
Paul received from the early Church both a practice of thus including women in the ministries of catechesis, prophecy, local Church leadership, and traveling evangelism (the role Paul calls that of "apostle"), and also a baptismal theology of male-female equivalence in Christ as reflected in the Galatians 3:28 reference. This formula was not original with Paul; he cites it from early Christian tradition. The Galatians baptismal text expresses the early Christian vision of the new humanity in Christ. It was consciously moulded to contrast with the traditions of rabbinic piety, adapted from Hellenistic philosophy, in which the Jewish male thanks God for having been born male and not female, free and not slave, and Jew rather than Gentile. By declaring that in Christ these divisions had been overcome and all these groups made "one," the early Christian stated the essence of his or her new identity as one where the equivalence of all humans in the image of God had been restored."